The Mascot, Nickname & Motto

For a few minutes after I had decided on a team name, I had peace.  My mind was still.  Then the questions began.  Mascot?  Colors?  Local?

The middle school mascot is the eagle, but a running club needs a mascot that runs, not flies, so the eagles were out.  Then what?  Pick a local animal.  Represent the community.  So what animals are indigenous to San Elijo?  Desert Cottontail, Coyote, Southern Mule Deer, Dusky Footed Wood-Rat, San Diego Alligator Lizard, and Southern Pacific Rattlesnake are a few.

Southern Pacific Rattlesnake

I definitely don't want a rattlesnake mascot, which is like a surf team picking a shark.  Besides, snakes don't have feet.

Dusky Footed Wood-Rat

Not a big fan of rats for a mascot either, too many negative connotations.

San Diego Alligator Lizard

A lizard lives in my backyard, which faces south and gets hot.  A lizard is sort of cool, but I prefer mammal over reptile and the ability to maintain body temperature.

Southern Mule-Dule

That leaves rabbit, coyote and deer.  I can't get over the 'Mule' in Mule Deer, which makes me think slow.  I could just get rid of the 'mule' and pick 'deer' as the mascot, but I'd always know and it would eat away at me.  Down to two, rabbit or coyote?

Desert Cottontail

The "Running Red Rabbits", oh, what an awesome name.  But coyotes are cooler than rabbits.  Rabbits are pace-makers and lose to tortoises.  Rabbits are more sprinters, than runners, not that sprinters aren't welcome here.  My mind battled.  I see rabbits constantly.  The coyotes not so much anymore.  They used to run down my street.  Now I just hear the howling.

Coyote
Canis latrans

Back and forth the battle raged.  I went to my family.  They said, "coyotes".  Coyotes it is.  I like their scientific name, canis latrans, which means "barking dog" and give us a great nickname to boot.  To top if off, "trans" is a prefix and means "across", "beyond" and "through", which give us a team motto too.  As Hannibal Smith would say, "I love it when a plan comes together".


San Elijo Hills Running Club